


Balloon Darts

by TiBun



Category: Marvel
Genre: Carnival Games, Clint Barton Birthday Bash Bingo 2020, Gen, Grumpy Clint Barton, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:08:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25744099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiBun/pseuds/TiBun
Summary: Normally, Clint loves being partnered up with Nat for an easy mission, but this time there is somewhere else he'd rather be. Nat's tired of his moping.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 3
Kudos: 50
Collections: Clint Barton Birthday Bash





	Balloon Darts

**Author's Note:**

> Clint Barton Birthday Bingo. Prompt square #8: Balloons.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters, I only explore the possibilities.

Clint pursed his lips into a tight, unhappy line as his senses were assaulted with the unpleasantly familiar sights, sounds, and smells that promised equally familiar oversweet or greasy flavors. Loud, energetic music layered with sounds of laughter, bells, and shouts. Flashing lights and colorful booths and tents transforming a normally empty space into what children would call a wonderland. The scent of grease-drenched and sugar-coated junk food overwhelmed the space.

It was a place of joy and fun to everyone but Clint. To Clint this little county fair was far too similar to the circus. The animals were horses, cows and pig rather than elephants, lions, and tigers, but it was practically the same. He’d grown up in a circus. He knew how a business like this was run; he knew all the tricks, the games, and the scams. And his time at the circus had not ended on a good note. So being in such a similar atmosphere was bringing back bad memories.

Memories of betrayal, of pain, of losing the only family member he thought he could trust. The Barton brothers stuck together...until loyalties became divided. Clint chose to do the right thing, and Barney chose to look the other way. 

And now Clint couldn't stand places like this. 

Not that he had any choice in being there now. He'd been partnered up with Natasha for a mission to gather information, and the trail had led them right into a small traveling carnival where they were walking, hand-in-hand, pretending to be a couple so that they’d slip by unnoticed.

“Loosen up, you look like you're not having any fun.” Nat said, nudging him with her elbow.

“It’s a carnival.” he shrugged.

“Exactly my point!” She said, shoving a bite of her funnel cake into his mouth, “I know you have some bad memories with this kind of atmosphere, but we’re on a job. Find something to loosen you up and put a smile on your face.”

“Funnel cake isn’t going to do it for me, Nat.”

“The funnel cake is  _ my _ thing to make me enjoy this more. You need to find something of your own. Maybe they have battered and deep-fried pizza or something.”

“That wouldn’t help.” Clint sighed.

“Wow, you  _ are  _ grumpy. This can’t just be because we’re here…” She trailed off in thought before snapping her fingers and stepping forward and turning gracefully so that she was in front of him. “You’re sulking because this quick and easy  _ trip _ is taking longer than expected and you just want to get back to the honeymoon phase with the sexy soldier who’s ring matches yours.”

“We haven't even gotten to start the honeymoon phase! Our trip was canceled because of that AIM attack in Chicago. Then SHIELD made me come on this mission, and that’s not fair. Phil would have let me go on my honeymoon...I miss him. He was always understanding of this kind of thing…”

“Stark’s setting you two up on a dream vacation for as soon as you get back, I’m sure you’ll find it worth the wait.”

Clint only shot her a pouty look, and she sighed, glancing around. “Alright, fine, let’s split up.”

“Split up?”

“We have some time to kill before we make our move. I want you to go on a mini-mission to find  _ something _ that will put a smile on your face.”

“And what are you doing?”

“I’m going to go look at the goats.” She shrugged, turning towards the barns where the 4H animals were kept.

“You’d rather hang out with goats?”

“Yup. Grumpy goats are much cuter than a grumpy best friend.” she said bluntly.

“Good to know I’m so loved.” he pouted.

“Go find something nice!” she dismissed him, "Come find me when you're less grumpy than the goats."

With a resigned sigh, Clint stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and started wandering around the midway alone.

Maybe Nat had a point. As far as missions went, this one could be worse. It wasn’t as if they were on a blackout mission, and he  _ did  _ get to facetime with Bucky whenever they retired to their motel room and he waited for his turn to use the shower. As soon as they finished tracking down all the information Shield needed he would be able to run off with his new husband to someplace nice.

He stepped around a puddle of what he hoped was just a spilled drink, startling when something soft smacked into the side of his head. Leaning back and blinking he found himself face to face with a hanging stuffed dog sporting a Captain America cowl and shield. Stepping back he found that the adorable puppy-fied version of Steve was not alone. A cat dressed up as Iron Man, an elephant dressed up as the Hulk, a duck dressed up as Falcon (Clint snorted at that one), a fox as Black Widow… They were all adorable as they hung on display to catch the attention of children wanting a chance to win one.

Clint stepped around to view the game booth that was boasting such cute prizes. It was a simple enough game. A common one where the player would use darts to pop balloons, each balloon popped granting a random number of points, when added up could be used to win a prize. Most who played hoping for one of the big prizes would be walking away with one of the cheap bin prizes lined up under the balloon board, while some very unlucky players would get nothing if all their darts happened to hit the spaces between the balloons or bounced off harmlessly which sometimes happened with the younger kids. Most players who would walk away with a big prize did so because they kept paying for more and more darts until they had accumulated the points needed. But Clint had the advantage of never missing his targets, and having a good idea where the big point balloons were likely located. He wouldn’t have to spend too much money in order to win one of the animal avengers.

The Captain America and Iron Man stuffed animals seemed to be the most popular as they dominated the booth’s display of prizes. Made sense. They were the most recognizable members of the team, and the popular favorites. There were online communities that passionately declared their love for either Steve or Tony. There was even a quote-unquote ‘Civil War’ between the two communities where they each believe their respective chosen hero should be the team’s leader. The other heroes didn’t have that sort of drama amongst their fans. Clint liked it that way. His own fans were a small group compared to the other heroes, but he didn’t mind, and he appreciated each and every one of them. He even personally replied to any fanmail he got. Steve and Tony wouldn’t have lives if they tried doing that.

Clint pushed the thought aside, looking over the booth until he spotted it. In the corner of the booth, at the edge of the balloon board, was a bear with a silver arm and black mask, poking out of the middle of a bunch of extra Captain puppies.

A Winter Soldier bear—a _Bucky_ bear. Clint  _ had _ to have it, and oh! There at the bottom was the arm of...something, a purple bow attached to its paw. Aw, they had a Hawkeye, too. Maybe he should get that for Bucky. That way they both would have a portable husband stand-in.

Determined to win those prizes, Clint stepped up to the booth, catching the attention of the man who was running it and had been heckling passing people in an attempt to get them to spend money at his booth.

“How many points do I need to get to win one of the Avenger animals?”

“Twenty points gets you one of the big prizes. Five dollars for two darts, ten dollars will get you five darts.”

“So fourty will get me two of the big prizes?”

“Yup. Feeling lucky?” the man asked, waving a handful of darts.

“I’ll give it a try. Hmm, forty points… give me ten darts.” he said, pulling out his wallet and handing over a twenty. 

“Only ten?” The man asked, pocketing the money and counting out ten darts. “And you’re trying to get two big prizes?”

“I figured I’d give myself some room for error.” Clint grinned, taking the darts and weighing them individually in hand. Yup. they were all weighted differently, an intentional flaw designed to throw off the players. Luckily, Clint had experience using cheater darts.

“I don’t know, you might have to dig your wallet back out if you want two.” the man smirked as he stepped away to his safe spot so he wouldn’t be hit by any darts.

“We’ll see.” Clint said, flipping a dart over in his hand before flinging it at a bright blue balloon. It popped, the dart securely buried in the point card under it.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Clint threw his darts one after another, choosing random balloons all over the board rather than trying to stick to a cluster like most people did.

Once the last dart popped a pink balloon, the worker moved to collect the cards, reading out the points as he flipped them over and adding them up until he turned around with a stunned look at Clint. “Total score is sixty-two.”

“Oh—neat! I guess I’ll also get the Black Widow fox, then. My friend will get a kick out of that one.” Clint grinned, bouncing in place.

The man grabbed one of the foxes, “The other two being Iron Man and Captain America?”

“Nah, I want the Winter Soldier over in that corner and that one at the bottom is Hawkeye, right? I want that too!”

The man dug into the display to get the requested prizes, and hu. Hawkeye had been imagined to be a bunny. That was new. He held the three prizes out to Clint. “You’ve played this game before, haven't you?”

“Yup. Spent a lot of time popping balloons when I was younger.” Clint grinned, hugging the three stuffed animals to his chest. And it was true. He often would walk around between shows at the circus in his normal clothes and ‘play’ some of the games in order to ‘show how easy’ it was to win. He had to be good at them to know how to mess them up and make himself look like just a normal guy playing them, and not a master marksman. He didn’t tell the man any of that, though, simply nodding good day as he turned to go find Nat again to admit that  _ maybe _ being at a fair wasn't the  _ worst _ place to be.

* * *

-End-

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
